This column was written by Jacqueline Record, Coles County Master Gardener.

Every one who gardens knows there are fashion trends for gardens just as there are for people. Everyone is tired of winter clothing and gardeners have been checking out catalogs and garden magazines for the newest thing in which to dress their flowerbeds and vegetable rows.

Some of us who have been gardening for a while have been through our water garden phase and have tried out native grasses and prairie plants, theme gardens and so on.

So what is new and innovative for the restless plants man or woman who longs for the floral equivalent of a designer handbag or new shoes in time for spring? Well, gardeners do what the fashionistas do: they consult fashion magazines.

White Flower Farm's spring catalog (www.whiteflowerfarm.com) lists several unfamiliar plants with a helpful label (New!) including several begonias. There is a beautiful coral pink one called " Begonia John Smith." That's a pretty ordinary name for a plant that costs $125 each and, no, that is not a misprint. I might have mentioned before that this nursery is the equivalent of Neiman Marcus or maybe Louis Vuitton. There is always something for a poorer gardener, though, and I fell in love with a begonia named "Escargot" which is French for snail. Its leaves look just like a snail, with white markings and a little curlicue- like snail's tail and will show up nicely in our shade garden, which certainly can use some color. Just don't tell my husband that it cost $12.95 or two for $24.95.

There are new spring perennials in this catalog too, some of which are only available on-line.

Garden Design Magazine's cover advertises 50 Hot New Plants to Love Now. Never mind that 29 of them are only hardy to Zone 9. You can love them in the Midwest until the end of summer and get a backache digging them up and finding a mouse-proof place to store them until the next spring. Some of them are irresistible though. Black is the IN color for spring (excuse me, the HOT color) and there is a racy new coleus called "Chocolat Mint" that looks like fishnet stockings. I wondered if the plant bugs would think it is a spider's web and pass it by?

Heavy Metal is big too and shiny silver and gold predominate. I liked a Japanese painted fern called "Silver Falls" that supposedly does not turn green in late summer, but haven't checked out the price yet.

Fine Gardening Magazine also has a section on dark foliage plants suitable for the Midwest including Japanese ferns and a red switch grass that caught my eye. The plant I really want though is green, a Wollemi Pine (wollemia nobilis), long thought to be extinct. Seedlings are available through the National Geographic Society and I plan to try to snag one and try to treat it as a houseplant since it is only hardy to Zone 7.

Other trends for the season tend toward the freaky. There is a singularly ugly hybrid Podphyllum, May Apple to most of you, called "Spotty Dotty" that would be a conversation piece in a shade garden.

Textured plants, drought resistant gardens and lots of new organic gardening techniques seem to be part of the spring gardening scene, in case you long to be on the cutting edge, so to speak. Just remember that even freaky, trendy new plants need a proper home, meaning the proper soil, light and watering conditions, or they won't last, no matter how much you liked them in the store (or the garden catalog). If you need help deciding, call the Master Gardeners.

If you have any horticulture questions, call the local U of I Extension office Monday through Friday at 345-7034. Volunteer Master Gardeners are not in the office this time of year–they will return your call.

This column is based on information and materials available at the University of Illinois Extension office, located at 707 Windsor Road, Suite A., Charleston, 61920; phone 345-7034; or web site: www.extension.uiuc.edu/coles/